The exemplary embodiment relates to the printing arts. It finds particular application in connection with matching of consumables, such as toners, to a marking engine in a printing system comprising multiple marking engines and will be described with particular reference thereto. However, it will be appreciated that the exemplary embodiment finds application in single marking engine printing systems.
Electronic printing systems typically employ an input terminal which receives images in digital form and conversion electronics for converting the image to image signals or pixels. The printing system may include a scanner for scanning image-bearing documents or be connected to a computer network which supplies the digital images. The signals are stored and are read out successively to a marking engine for formation of the images and transfer of the images to a print medium, such as paper. Printing systems have been developed which employ multiple marking engines for black, process (or full) color, and custom color (single color or monochrome) printing of selected pages within a print job.
In typical electrophotographic image forming devices, such as copy machines and laser beam printers, a photoconductive insulating member is charged to a uniform potential and thereafter exposed to a light image of an original document to be reproduced. The exposure discharges the photoconductive insulating surface in exposed or background areas and creates an electrostatic latent image on the member, which corresponds to the image areas contained within the document. Subsequently, the electrostatic latent image on the photoconductive insulating surface is made visible by developing the image with a marking material. Generally, the marking material comprises toner particles adhering triboelectrically to carrier granules, which is often referred to simply as toner. The developed image is subsequently transferred to the print medium, such as a sheet of paper. The fusing of the toner image onto paper is generally accomplished by applying heat to the toner with a heated roller and application of pressure. In multi-color printing, successive latent images corresponding to different colors are recorded on the photoconductive surface and developed with toner of a complementary color. The single color toner images are successively transferred to the copy paper to create a multi-layered toner image on the paper. The multi-layered toner image is permanently affixed to the copy paper in the fusing process.
To achieve optimum print quality and robustness of the marking engine, the marking engine and marking material are carefully matched. Thus, for a given marking engine, the marking material is formulated to meet the demands of the components of the marking engine and vice versa. For example, the marking material may have particular additives which enable the particular marking engine to maintain high print quality while enabling performance robustness.
Printing facilities now often have several different marking engines for printing documents. Each marking engine may have its own specific marking material which is incompatible with the other marking engines in the facility. Thus, if supplies of one marking material run out, another marking material cannot be substituted without severely compromising print quality or risking damage to the marking engine. Additionally, other consumables, such as photoreceptor belts, may also be specific to a particular type of marking engine. Accordingly, supplies of each of these consumables are generally kept on hand to main full productivity of the marking engines.